Ronald L Heimark

Ronald L Heimark is an Associate Professor at the University of Arizona, affiliated with the College of Medicine's Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, as well as Pathology, Ophthalmology, and Surgery. He is also a Professor in the Cancer Biology Graduate Interdisciplinary Program (GIDP).

• Education: BA in Biology and Chemistry from Western Washington State University (1970), PhD in Biochemistry from University of California Davis (1976), Postdoctoral Fellowships at University of Washington in Biochemistry (1976) and Pathology (1981).

Research Interests: Dr. Heimark's lab focuses on mechanisms of cancer progression and metastasis, particularly in prostate and pancreatic cancers. His work explores epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), the cadherin switch (loss of E-cadherin and gain of N-cadherin), and its role in prosurvival signaling for invasive cancer cells. He also investigates transcriptional regulators of adhesion molecules as potential biomarkers for aggressive disease, and RNA-RNA interactions, including biofunctional SNPs and miR-302/367 pri-miRNA processing in prostate cancer risk stratification.

Experience: He was a founding scientist at ICOS Corporation (1990-1993), contributing to the development of Cialis (tadalafil). Since 1993, he has served on numerous NIH Study Sections and published over 80 papers. His research includes collaborative studies on competitive endogenous RNA networks and genetic variants linked to aggressive prostate cancer.